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He’d never really been thought of as a contender before, which was strange when you think about it, as he’s already proven his acting chops as Action Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Godzilla and Tenet, while simultaneously showing thespian range in movies like Anna Karenina, A Million Little Pieces, and his breakthrough smash in which he starred as a young John Lennon, Nowhere Boy.
The show features all your favourite Bond songs such as Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and Nobody Does It Better, performed with the most authentic and dedicated arrangements to the originals ever heard, but with such passion, enthusiasm and flair: you can’t help but be wowed. This show will also focus on three huge anniversaries: From Russia With Love (60th), Live and Let Die (50th) and Octopussy (40th) with musical tributes to the scores, as well as hearing memories from our special guests who appeared in the films.Phase three Pattinson would make for a very interesting 007 indeed. We're not saying that the foppish spy he played in Tenet is definitely a James Bond audition tape. But we will point out he pulls off a double-breasted suit even better than Roger Moore.
It’s hard to know what you’re going to get from an actor when you ask them The Big Bond Question. Some (Idris Elba, Tom Hardy et al) have clearly grown weary of it, while others try to maintain a 007-esque aloofness, mindful that Bond must never, under any circumstances, be played by an eager beaver. Conversely, there are actors (Henry Cavill, Sam Heughan) who make no secret of how much they really, really want the role, and speak about it openly with reverence. Then there are the ones who’ve clearly not thought about it that much, but… yeah, why the hell not? Sounds like a laugh.He's directing and starring in the action thriller Monkey Man that's out later this year, which would make him the first actor to have directed a film before playing Bond, but it does point to a more general leaning away from the kind of giant machine Bond represents. He's said as much in the past too: "I don't know what I would like to play," he admitted in a 2016 roundtable, "but I know what I'm afraid of playing: those big studio movies." Every profile of Dev Patel has to mention that we all remember him starting out as the lanky, awkward Anwar in Skins, so here that is. He has, obviously, become a lot more than that. Through Armando Iannucci's fresh, breezy reworking of The Personal History of David Copperfield and the grungy medieval epic The Green Knight – as well as Lion and Hotel Mumbai – he's positioned himself as one of Britain's most interesting and pliable leading men. At 33 he's the same age as Connery was when he was cast, he's dashing enough, and he's got a couple of action films under his belt as well as indie dramas. Actors who have portrayed the titular character in the James Bond films include Sean Connery (six films, not counting the non-Eon film Never Say Never Again), George Lazenby (one film), Roger Moore (seven films), Timothy Dalton (two films), Pierce Brosnan (four films), and Daniel Craig (five films). Sure enough, bookies have Cavill at 5/2 second favourite to put those reloadable arms into service for King and Country. You'll need a history of hefty, critically respected film parts these days. Then there’s the general sense of Bond-ishness: Connery "moved like a jungle cat," as Cubby's wife Dana Broccoli put it, and that sense of muscular virility has been an essential part of each Bond actor on screen.
After a 2023 spent riding high in both the TV charts – and the music charts, with the tie-in album Aurora – for his role as Billy Dunne in the series about the fictional band Daisy Jones & The Six, Claflin has definitely made the crossover to bonafide star on both sides of the Atlantic. He's placed himself in the conversation on a couple of occasions too. "I mean, ultimately, as a young British lad who loves cinema, I'd love to be James Bond,” he told Variety in February 2021. “So, you know, I'm just putting that out there. I look pretty good in a suit. I'd be like a really short James Bond." And as we’ve mentioned previously, it’s probably time to get a Short King in the role (Daniel Craig, at 5 foot 10, is the shortest to take on the role so far). But what makes a Bond? Barbara Broccoli says he's now a more mutable figure than he used to be. So yes: that means James Bond doesn't have to be white. Bond "should be British,” Broccoli said in 2021, and added that “British can be any [ethnicity or race]". The case against? There’s not a huge buzz about him, though that might just be because nobody’s put him in a tux for a photoshoot just yet. But give it a year or so, and he might just be in the picture. When British actor Damson Idris was stopped on the red carpet for the season five premiere of US crime drama Snowfall in February 2023 (it’s good! Give it a watch!), Hip Hollywood put it to him that he’d make a perfect successor to Daniel Craig. He seemed excited by the thought.Think about it. He’s 33. He can do the action stuff, as we saw when he was spraying chrome paint onto his teeth on Mad Max: Fury Road. He’s been in a couple of arty favourites in The Favourite and True History of the Kelly Gang. He’s a very different physical specimen to Daniel Craig, stringy and slightly elfin rather than butch and chunky, and that could be a bit of a draw to the Bond suits who’ll likely be keen to draw a line between the post-Bourne Bond years and whatever the new one turns into. The post-Marvel Bond years? The post- Avatar 2 Bond years? The post- F9 Bond years? Who knows. It's crazy. It's not real. It's speculative," Norton told the Sunday Times in January 2020. "There is no truth behind it. Unless journalists know something more than I do.”
It’s that time again. One James Bond has handed in his Walter PPK, licence to kill and loyalty card at the MI6 staff caf é , and the process of replacing him is underway We’ve tried looking at younger people in the past,’ he told Deadline . ‘But trying to visualise it doesn’t work. Remember, Bond’s already a veteran. He’s had some experience. He’s a person who has been through the wars, so to speak. He’s probably been in the SAS or something. He isn’t some kid out of high school that you can bring in and start off. That’s why it works for a thirtysomething.’ As McWilliams pointed out, previous Bonds weren't massive stars: "Timothy Dalton was known, but he was known as a Shakespearean actor, really. Pierce was known, but that was basically from television. Roger Moore was known from television. Sean Connery wasn't [known] – nobody had ever heard of him. A certain audience had heard of Daniel Craig, but much more the kind of independent cinema audience. He hadn't done any huge commercial film at all, really."
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We love Idris," Broccoli told Variety at the end of August 2022. "The thing is, it's going to be a couple of years off. And when we cast Bond, it's a 10-, 12-year commitment. So he's probably thinking, 'Do I really want that thing?' Not everybody wants to do that. It was hard enough getting [Daniel Craig to do it]." But he can't – for now, at least – be a woman. "We should create roles for women, not just turn a man into a woman," Broccoli said, a sentiment Craig echoed in a couple of No Time To Die promo interviews.
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